Mining
Mining is an integral part of Battlestar Galactica Online's gameplay. Mining is the means by which players extract Tylium, Titanium, and Water from the envoirment to use in ship upgrades, purchasing new equipment and ships, and completing daily asignments. There are two types of mining: #Asteroid Mining #Planetoid Mining Each type of mining has its own pros and cons, and each type of mining has its own requirements to be successful. Resources There are 3 types of resources that can be mined from both asteroid, and planetoids. #'Tylium:' Tylium is used as fuel for ships by both the Colonials and Cylons. It is also used as a basic currency to purchase new equipment, ships and ammunition. If you have 0 tylium then your ship cannot make a Faster Than Light (FTL) Jump. #'Titanium: 'Titanium is used to repair ships, their hulls as well as installed systems. Titanium can also be bought at a rate of 1 cubit per 10 units of titanium, and sold at a rate of 1 unit of Tylium per 2 units of titanium. #'Water:' Water is the most sought after resources in the game. Although it has no direct use, it is the only thing in the game that can be sold for Cubits at a rate of 1 cubit per 5 units of water. Even players from the same faction but different Wing may try to steal a water mine from other allies. Water is sold by talking to either Starbuck in the Galactica CIC (for Colonial players), Caprica Six on the Basestar ( for Cylon players) or by talking to the Quartermaster/Number Eight on any Outpost. Resouces can be identified by the use of a Mineral Analysis Module. When scanned, a planetoid or asteroid will change to one of 4 colors: #Red means there are no useful resources. #Purple means there is Titanium present. #Yellow means there is for Tylium present. #Blue means there is Water present. Equipment *''' Mineral Analysis Module (Colonial) or Mineral Analysis Cluster (Cylon)' is by far the most important mining tool as it allows you to scan the asteroids and planetoids for resouces. It costs 50 untis of power to operate for a level 1, this is lowered dramatically with each level, with it being lowered to 5 power per operation. Colonial Mining Cannons Cylon Mining Cannons Asteroid Mining '''Asteroid Mining' involves scouring systems for individual asteroids, scanning them with a mineral analysis module/cluster, and blasting them apart with mining cannon/s to retrieve the minerals inside. Asteroids can be found in every system, and come in a variety of sizes. The health, size, and amount of resources which are in the asteroids, depend completely on the threat level of the sector. Systems with a threat level of 20 tend to have larger, more abundant, mineral reserves, but players have to be wary of other players and hostile high level NPCs. Threat levels 1-10 are safer, but give less resources. Once you are able to afford a secondary ship, it'll be a good idea to make one solely for the purpose of mining, and the other to be your primary combat vessel, as prospecting requires quite a few things in order to ease the process of mining, at the cost of combat-effectiveness. This means that if you're confined to only one ship alone, a Viper Mark II, if you're starting out with the Colonials, or a Cylon Raider , if you're starting out with the Cylons, you would have a rather difficult choice to make as to what kind of role and purpose you would want for yourself as well as your chosen vessel. Given the fact that the starter ships tend to be rather limited in space and functionality, it would be best to find a Wing to join with first, and rely on more experienced players/friends to help with resource gathering until you have sufficient resources to procure another ship. It is recommended by some to mine asteroids with the use of an Escort, as its mining cannons deal more damage than those of Strikes, allowing the pilot to destroy the asteroid faster and save more time. Many players who mine with Lines however, may forgo the use of mining cannons and instead use regular cannons, as they mine faster, and allow for effective defensive capabilities should they be attacked by players or NPCs. However, mining with a strike makes players harder to see at distance and players may be able to outrun any attackers. Asteroid mining, whilst it can lead to boredom, tends to be safer than planetoid mining (see below). This is because your mining efforts do not show up on anyone's sector map. All you need worry about is either being spotted by enemy on Dradis or visually. Asteroid Mining.png|Colonial Raptor mining water Planetoid Mining Planetoid Mining is the process of extracting large quantities of minerals (sometimes in the range of 50,000+) from the large "asteroids" (which are called "planetoids") that are found in most systems. Planetoids are easy to spot upon entering a system, as they are at least 15 times bigger than the largest asteroids. Because of this, planetoids are too large for a mining cannon/s to destroy and are instead mined via a Mining Ship. To mine a planetoids, it must first be scanned, which requires the Mineral Analysis Module (Colonial) or the Mineral Analysis Cluster (Cylons). After scanning, if the planetoid has any resources, a menu will appear asking if you want to call in a Mining Ship. The cost of calling in the mining ship is 100 cubits. Upon selecting yes, a Colonial or Cylon Mining Ship (depending on your faction) will jump in, land on the planetoid and begin extracting resources. It is then up to the player to defend the mining ship until it is either: destroyed by NPC's; destroyed by other Players; or the Planetoid runs out of resources and breaks up. The mining ship will automatically extract resources from the planetoids and automatically place it into your hold regardless of what system you are in, and even if you are offline. When a planetoids does run out, it breaks apart, and will respawn in random shapes and sizes after a certain period of time. The resources may also vary greatly. Please note, when you first call in a mining ship, an NPC from the opposing faction will spawn nearby within seconds and attempt to destroy the mining ship. The spawning of an enemy NPC to attack the mining ship will continue at regular intervals until either the mining ship is destroyed, or leaves following the planetoids breaking up after running out of resources. It should be noted that the higher the threat level of the system you mine in, the planetoids will have a potentially higher yield of a particular resource than those in systems with a low threat level (e.g. planetoids in systems with a threat level of 20 have had planetoids yield over 50,000 units of a particular resource as opposed to 7,000 in a system with a threat level of 4). However, the higher threat level will see larger sized NPC ships spawn, and also they will spawn more frequently than in lower level systems to attack the mining ship. They will also tend to be of higher level. Further, players should realise that planetoid mining is inherently more dangerous than asteroid mining. When you call in a mining ship, the prescence of a mining ship in a system shows on the sector map for all players, both Colonial and Cylon alike.This is because the destruction of mining ships is part of a player's daily assignments (see Mining Disruption), so players from the opposing facfion will be looking for mining ships to destroy. What some players do not realise is that planetoid mining is in the game as a method to encourge player v player combat. If you do not like this, it is recommended you stick to asteroid mining. System Planetoid Unscanned.png|Planetoid Cylon Mining Ship at work.png|Cylon mining ship at work Colonial Mining Ship.png|Colonial mining ship at work Mining In Squadrons Mining in a squadron is a good way to ensure that a mining ship remains safe, however the downside is that the more players in the squadron, the less of the mineral each player receives over time. Also, anyone who was not in the squadron when the mining ship was called, will not obtain minerals from the planetoid. The game divides the amount mined evenly between the players in the squadron at the time the mining ship is called in. If a new player is added to the squadron after a mining ship has been called in, this new squadron member will not gain any minerals from the mining ship. The only way to enable them to do so is to allow an enemy ship (be it an NPC or a player controlled one) to destroy the mining ship and then call in a new mining ship. It should be noted following the deployment of Game Update 50, only the mining of planetoids by mining ships will be divided amongst the players in a squadron. Mining of asteroids will see all the resources obtained go to the player who mined them and no one else. Types of Mining Ships For more information, read this page. Tips, Hints and Suggestions 1. The Advanced Cylon Raider or Advanced Viper Mk.II is also arguably the best mining ship for the Cylons or Colonials for a number of reasons: * Escort and Line ships are almost effortless to visually spot and manually target from clear across a system. If you try to mine solo in an Escort or a Line in a higher-risk system closer to Colonial/Cylon territory in order to get the richer rocks, there is an extremely high chance that a Colonial/Cylon player will jump into the system for whatever reason, spot you, target you to check if you're an NPC, announce your position in Fleet Chat and get a squadron of veteran Strike ships to ambush you out of nowhere and there's nothing you'll be able to do to predict or escape it. The Advanced Cylon Raider/Advanced Viper Mk.II, on the other hand, is impossible to visually spot at these ranges and even if someone does find and attack you, you'll have the speed to outrun nearly anything and jump out to safety. * Higher-size mining guns do not give a better overall DPS than Strike mining guns, so gun for gun you will not be able to blow up rocks faster in an Escort or Line. Their power cost for use plus the power cost of the asteroid scanner is fairly comparable through the ship tiers as well (larger size ships have more power and power regeneration but the mining guns and sensors cost more power to use in an almost perfect counter), and the Range bonus of larger-size equipment is effortlessly countered by the Raider's/Viper's superior speed for getting into range. * The power costs of the asteroid scanner and mining guns make it relatively ineffective to use more than two mining guns and the scanner regardless of which Cylon/Colonial strike craft you use, so switching to a different Strike craft from the Advanced Raider/Advanced Viper Mk.II will not give you a benefit. * The Advanced Raider's/Advanced Viper Mk.II's unmatched speed makes it the best Cylon/Colonial ship for moving between clusters of asteroids * Strike equipment is cheaper to upgrade than Escort or Line equipment, allowing you to get high level equipment far earlier. Two upgraded mining guns and an upgraded asteroid scanner is generally the most efficient setup given the power costs and the need for two normal guns for defense. Low level players should avoid planetoid mining in contested systems (i.e. systems opposition players can enter). This is because the Mining Disruption daily assignment requires oppostion players to destroy mining ships, and as mining ships show up on the Sector Map for both factions, you will attract opposition players with superior equipment looking to destroy your mining ship, which you will not be able to defend well. Asteroid mining might be a grind but it is safer, and you can gather water faster than by planetoid mining. Category:Mining Category:Resources